YORK City Knights boss Dave Woods was in the running for the head coach’s role with Ireland Rugby League, The Press can reveal.

The Aussie was interviewed for the job, with a view of taking charge of the 2013 World Cup, but has not been offered the position. The successful candidate has not yet been named but it is likely to be someone with more opportunity to work on the development of the game in the Emerald Isle.

Woods confirmed he had held talks with Ireland RL about succeeding Andy Kelly as the national team boss, although it would only have been a secondary job, in addition to – not instead of – his role at Huntington Stadium. He also conceded his first priority had to be the Knights, who had been aware of the interview.

Said the former Castleford and Gateshead coach: “It would have been good to be going to the World Cup and helping Ireland but, at the end of the day, I’ve got a good job at York and I need to focus on that.”

Woods has family links with Ireland – his Scottish-born mum’s dad was Irish.

When asked where his allegiances lied, especially as he has been in England a few years now, he joked: “I’m starting to sway a bit but I still follow Australia.”

Meanwhile, Woods has reiterated the Knights squad needed more experience – but he refused to use their difficult fixture programme as an excuse for their current predicament.

The Knights had two matches over the Easter weekend whereas both sides in opposition – Hunslet and Toulouse – had only one match. The Knights also had to take on Batley on Thursday night, five days after their trip to Barrow, while the Bulldogs had had that previous weekend off.

Defeat that night left York third-bottom of the Championship and they fell into the bottom two after yesterday’s 14-12 victory by Halifax over Sheffield.

Asked if that fixture list had played a part, Woods said: “I don’t think so.

“It’s the same as refereeing decisions (at Batley) – it was poor but those fixtures don’t make us drop balls or miss tackles or play as badly as we did.

“We went to Toulouse and got a win. We can’t be blaming that.

“We need to be positive about what we’re doing and how we’re playing and keep working hard together.

“It will eventually come good. If you look at our squad, we’re very young playing a team like Batley, who have players who have played at this level for years. We don’t have that.”

Former York Acorn amateur Davey Burns was on the bench on Thursday, and became part of a makeshift pack that night in a team which already lacked experience.

Woods added: “We’ve got young blokes like Dave Sutton, Rhys Clarke, Matty Garside – we should be building them up slowly, giving them a run every now and again, but we’re having to throw them in at the deep end.”